Studio XPS 435MT and the Dell ATI Radeon 4850

Our 360w power supply is validated with the Dell ATI Radeon 4850. You do not need to upgrade the power supply. It doesn't matter what the Ati website says. Your using a Dell video card, not the retail video card.

And there's really no difference between a retail card and what Dell supplies with the system. What matters is the max output of the PSU and the capabilities of the PSU's 12V rail(s). ATI and Nvidia always have high power requirements for their video cards.

A good rule for Dell systems and running high-end video cards is to go by what power connections are available by the PSU in a particular model. The 435MT has one 6pin power connector, and can run any video card that requires one (or no) 6pin power connector. This would include the HD4850, 9800GT, or even a GTS 250. However, a card like the HD4870, HD4890, GTX 260 or GTX 275, requires two 6pin power connectors, so these cards would run well in an XPS 630, XPS 730, or XPS 730x, and also a Precision T3400 when ordered with the optional 525W power supply.

And there's really no difference between a retail card and what Dell supplies with the system.* FYI - We do re-flash the video card bios to bring the GPU and VRAM clocks to our specifications. Just like EVGA would have different settings than MSI.

LIke I said above, any video card which requires only one (or no) 6pin power connector will work just fine in the 435MT. If the video card requires two 6pin (or one 6pin and one 8pin) power connectors, it will not. I know this rule isn't technically oriented in regards to amperage on 12V rails, but it still works.

I had a Radeon 4850 card from my previous system (which is now sadly deceased) that I swapped into the 435MT. My card had one 6-pin connection, which I easily plugged in to the power supply, and it works nicely now.

anyone successfully changeout the psu and stuff a high-end card (ati or nv)? if so, can you please post specifics? (i REALLY do not want to swap out to another case like i read another member did ~ nor do i want to invest in another mobo and swap everything over.)

So an HD 4770 should work without a hitch on dells stock 360W psu? It would seem so since it uses less power than a 4850 while maintaining near identical performance. Seems quite large though, the Sapphire HD 4770 look like it would fit just fine in the case :) So for anyone upgrading from that boggy HD 3650 go with a HD 4770!

That seems logical. The 4770 isn't too much different from the 4850
anyway in performance. However, according to Chris, it seems that
GTS250 1GB is the highest you can go. Really, 360W is more than enough
to handle these graphics cards anyway. There's an article out there
that actually investigates how much power your PC really needs I forget
what it was...

Anyway it's not worth upgrading that PSU for now.
The default 4850 can handle a lot. I've been using it, and even at
1920x1080, it handles games and everyday computing great. You should probably only change the PSU when making a large upgrade to a 4890, GTX 285, or maybe even to those DX11 cards coming out in a few weeks (7 weeks supposedly ). I've had this 4850 since the Studio XPS was released and it's great.

Hi, I've posted and the answer to my query was to either upgrade my psu to somethng higher than the 360W installed and/or install a better heatsink/fan on the 4850.

Here's my problem, I've recently started playing Crysis in high res mode (AA not turned on) and although I hear the fan whirl up to cool it down, my screen freezes and I need to push the power button to reboot/recover. The freeze happens sporadically, sometimes I get to play over an hour sometimes shorter. If the PSU is not the problem then does this mean that I have defective parts for video/ram or somewhere else?